


Make a little sea

by LadyKG



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Confessions, I was just looking for an excuse to finally post this, M/M, Merman!Yuuri, Yuuko is awesome and totally done with Yuuri's shit, Yuuri dealing with anxiety, kinda Crack but not really, late as it is, mermaid AU because I can and I'm complete trash, mermaid!yuuri, mostly for MerMay but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 05:16:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11052105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKG/pseuds/LadyKG
Summary: The first time his parents take him ice skating he marvels at the fact he doesn’t grow fins. (YOI Mermaid!AU)





	Make a little sea

**Author's Note:**

> 'Ello lovely readers,  
> I know it's a bit late but this is my submission for MerMay, but really I've just been looking for an excuse to write and post a YOI Mermaid!AU because why not?  
> Anyway, onto the story, I hope you all enjoy and please review!!!

The first time his parents take him ice skating he marvels at the fact he doesn’t grow fins. He is so shocked that the water - frozen as it is - doesn’t _do_ anything that he doesn’t care to pay attention to the girl he was about to collide with. They both go down hard, sprawling across the ice and setting his glasses askew - his grandma had insisted upon getting them, saying that his vision will always be worse outside the water.  

She is loud and hyper - the first thing he notices without being able to properly see - to the point he can’t keep up with her babbling as she hefts herself off the ice like their fall was nothing.

 “-I haven’t seen you here before,” her voice goes on, cheerful even as Yuuri feels the bruises form on himself, more than certain that she has gained some purple blotches as well. “What’s your name? I’m Yuuko!”

 “Yuuri,” his voice came small and less over-taking than hers. The second thing he notices is her beaming, teeth-filled, eye-closing smile.

A year older and two more than Yuuri on the ice gives her a grace he wishes his stubby limbs could have outside the water. She becomes his friend - declares it herself as she helps him rebalance on wobbly blades.

It becomes a day of many firsts.

 

Two years later his grandmother dies, taken by the foaming waves.

She was the only one in his family that shared his ‘gift’. The one that taught him how to swim, and all the rules about being part merperson. Like how often to shift, or that just because you _can_ eat fish easier when you transform doesn’t mean you _should._ Like the fact that _other_ kids don’t grow fins when submerged, that Yuuri was different and he shouldn’t despair.

She was the only one who didn’t give him worrying looks when, at the age of three, his tail replaced his legs during bath time. She had smiled, a knowing twinkle in her eye that was filled with equal parts glee.

It takes a month for his parents to coax him back into the water. Not because he fears he too will be swallowed whole by its gaping vastness, but because it is not the same alone. He hates swimming alone.

It takes Yuuko another week to convince him to skate again. (A week and several long rants about how they will never be able to impress Viktor if they don’t practice).

 

Viktor Nikiforov.

Yuuri fills his room with posters of the man, a star brighter than any he has ever seen. Something to connect with Yuuko over, turns drastically into Yuuri’s own fantasy of sharing the ice with Viktor one day. Of sharing with this beautiful man the closest he can get to water without shifting - something precious.

One day, he tells his parents, one day he’s going to meet Viktor and give him a bouquet of blue roses.

His parents smile those indulgent smiles that always trick kids into believing they trust in the achievement of their wishes. They say, “Of course, Yuuri.”

And when he begs them for a poodle, “ _Viktor_ has a poodle!” They indulge him. Allow their child with dreams too big for his fins and stars in his eyes to reach for heights that no one thinks he can grasp. (Or perhaps the ‘no one’ is just Yuuri). Watch as he practices relentlessly each day, feet bleeding, body bruised and legs aching from lack of shift. Look on, and smile, and support, and tell Yuuri that they believe he can achieve whatever he puts his mind to. That everyone gets stage fright. That his anxiety will wane with more time in front of a crowd.

Those smiles change when he starts to win competitions - pride, now, and a sense of not-understanding. They support him. Celebrate each victory and do not question as he brings home more and more posters of a silver-haired skater with ocean blue eyes.

 

When Yuuko finds out the truth she is angrier than his parents.

It was been an accident, really. Even if he does, at times, contemplate telling her everything he knows that he shouldn’t. He is different, other people don’t grow fins when they enter water, and although he shouldn’t despair that doesn’t mean he plans to tell anyone of this difference either. Both because he heeds his grandmother’s old warnings and because he is scared of what they might do. What they might say. How they might react. (That Yuuko won’t want to be friends anymore).

She did. Want to be friend that is. Despite Yuuri’s fears and tear streaked face as he rushes home after finally, _finally,_ drying off enough to regain his legs. Despite the fact that he cries to his parents, eleven years old, that he just lost his best friend all because of this stupid ‘gift’. Despite the fact that he skips practice for three days.

Despite the fact that she feels like she has been betrayed.

“How could you not tell me?” Yuuko huffs, face set in a pout, arms propped on her hips.

Yuuri blinks up at her, Vicchan’s fur clutched in his fist for support as his still-best-friend stands outside his house and rants about how _cool_ it was to have a mermaid - “or would it be merman, merboy?” - as a best friend. That Yuuri will have to bring her all the prettiest shells and that he will have to swim them to Russia to meet Viktor. And can she see his tail again?

 

Minako doesn’t find out so much as his parents decide to tell her - twelve years old and only a few months since ‘The Yuuko Incident’ as the adults call it. They don’t need someone else discovering it by accident.

What if someone besides Minami sees?

What if Yuuri starts to be careless?

What if the authorities get involved?

What if-

Yuuri sits next to his sister. His normal, finless, shiftless sister who can go swimming with everyone else. Who doesn’t have to worry about gills and glasses and legs that ache if he doesn’t go in the water for too long.

Sits in the dining area of their home and listens to his parents as they talk in hushed voices from the kitchen. They discuss his future and how worried they are, how someone might ‘find out’ and that he could be taken away. That it is dangerous for him to live so close to the ocean. That Hatetsu is a small town and someone was bound to notice.

He hates his ‘gift’ sometimes.

 

He leaves his little town by the ocean for America, college, and training under a new coach. It terrifies him. He knows no one, the area is foreign to him in a way he hasn’t experienced when living in a small town. Even when they traveled for competitions it had always been with Yuuko or Minako by his side. Neither of them are with him now, and stepping off the plane into this new world sets his anxiety to a level he can barely handle. But he is determined, because it had taken a year of coaxing to convince his parents it is the right move.

There are no oceans close enough to Detroit that he parents have need to worry - one of the main selling points for his transition here. But the great lakes surround him and even if they are colder than what he is used to it affords him everything he needs in life.

Water.

Ice.

Skates.

And the next push to become a good enough skater to meet Viktor.

 

Meeting Phichit changes more than just his skating schedule or rooming situation. His fellow skater helps push Yuuri to try more daring jumps, to dare to dream even bigger - to aim for the stars when he has never been able to reach much higher than the sea.

Their friendship is, in Yuuri’s opinion, one for the books. They enable each other and indulge in more jokes than Celestino permits during practices but they have _fun._ They _excel._

They become so close that Yuuri can hardly imagine a time when Phichit wasn’t in his life - doesn’t _want_ to because it seems terribly lonely, even with Yuuko and Takeshi and Vicchan. They have become so inseparable that Yuuri can’t even pinpoint the time when he found out, just that he _did_ and that from then on out Phichit had joined him in skipping a class every two weeks to rent a boat and take it out onto the lake.

Phichit is also the first person beside Yuuko that Yuuri decides to tell about his dream of skating on the same ice as Viktor. Yuuri doesn’t know what he is expecting, but it isn’t the enthusiastic cheer and suddenly serious consideration of clocking more hours at the rink behind Celestino’s back.

It takes a weight off of his chest.

 

Five years tick by faster than he wants.  The anxiety never goes away, the panic right before getting onto the ice still fresh every single time.

Five years and he has finally made it to the GPF.

Five years and suddenly he is sitting in a stall with tear-streaked cheeks, twenty-four years old, and crying to his parents about how sorry he is to have disappointed them. To have messed up. To have missed Vicchan’s death.

To have failed so miserably in front of Viktor. To know and finally be forced to realize that his dreams really are too big for him and that fish are better left to swimming that trying to jump for the stars.

The sudden and forceful smashing of his stall door brings him up short, and with no small amount of trepidation - what if it’s _Viktor,_ what if he has come to tell Yuuri how disappointed he is? - he slides out of the stall.

“Sorry,” he is able to force out, voice small as he tries to seem less panicked than he actually is facing off Yuri Plisetsky. They call him the “Russian Punk” and with his already frayed mentality Yuuri is less than inclined to be running into him.

“Oi,” the younger boy starts out with, and with the look in his eyes Yuuri irrationally thinks that he has been discovered. That his parents will face not only disappointment in competition but another case of ‘The Yuuko Incident’. “I’m competing in the senior division next year,” is what comes instead, “we don’t need two Yuri’s in the same bracket.”

Oh, is all that comes to mind, because he had been thinking of-

“Incompetents like you should just retire already.” And suddenly the punk is right in his face screaming an insult and walking away faster than Yuuri can really process. Cutting short his thoughts and making him feel more and more justified in his decision. There are plenty of talented skaters, what use is having an older washed out dreamer on the rink?

Even with the encouragements of a reporter he can’t see reason to continue.

Especially when Viktor asks if he wants a commemorative photo. Especially as his heart sinks so low that he can’t even feel if it’s beating anymore.

Plisetsky was right. He really is a moron.

An idiot to think that Viktor would recognize him.

 

He waits out the rest of his semester, attending class and focusing on his grades. Attending practices to create a new routine becomes an afterthought - what use is it to train if he doesn’t intend to compete? He takes that time to study, and those weekends normally spent with Phichit in the rink see him in the lakes.

He gains weight. It has always been easy for him to do - when he was younger he had chalked it up to the waters being cold and the fat acting as a layer of insulation. But thin or not the chill has never bothered him and his mother suffers from a similar dilemma.

By the time he returns home he is more than ready to sink back into the anonymity of a small town and spend a week doing nothing but swimming. Perhaps he’ll even visit his grandmother’s grave.

He does not expect Minako-sensei to be there, waiting for him at the train station - nor does he expect her to be so excited in the face of his failure. His mother’s good mood at his arrival doesn’t do anything to lift his spirits - she is happy for his return but cannot seem to understand what it has cost him. (He can’t begrudge either of them, though).

 

Seeing Yuuko again after five years settles a strange weight in his chest, he would like to call it nostalgic but he would be wrong. She watches his ragtag performance of Viktor’s skate with shining eyes - like he could be more than he is. And when it is over she is more than happy to push her triplets onto her husband in order to join him by the beach. A private section that they always trekked to when Yuuri wanted to swim without anyone but her knowing - not even his parents have been told of this particular tradition. They sit there talking. Yuuri’s tail, a pretty mixture of darker blues and greys with hints of black along the edges of his fins, in the water enough that he stays shifted.

When they were younger Yuuko would always trace out small patterns like other children would give shapes to clouds.

She doesn’t this time, too busy chatting away about all that has changed since he left. And although she doesn’t sound hurt anymore, Yuuri knows that his disappearance has taken its toll of his best friend.

That night he falls asleep, legs no longer aching and a strange tightness in his chest. (Trying to force yourself to fall out of love is the hardest thing he has ever done - even if it is with skating and what it represents. Perhaps he’ll be able to convince his heart that simply teaching classes will be enough. Even if what he really wants is to, someday, skate once more with Viktor).

When he wakes the next morning it’s to a buzzing phone. He had ignored the notifications the night before - too busy catching up with Yuuko and too exhausted after to care for what they said.

“Hello,” he says, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“I-I’m sorry Yuuri,” Takeshi says over the line. “My kids uploaded the video, and it went viral! Everyone is freaking out, and it’s been retweeted all over the world!”

It seems the universe just won’t catch him a break.

He leaves his parents a note, quickly written and Yuuri isn’t even sure it makes sense. But he’s out the door before he can really think about that, racing down the steps and skidding through town with his hood drawn up over his head. Before he knows it he’s stripped to his underwear and stuffed the clothes he hastily threw on into his pack.

His and Yuuko’s escape still has the same tree with a wide enough opening to hide his belongings for at least three days. Any longer and his family will start to worry, even with the note.

The water bites against his skin right up until his body catches up with his shift and all he can feel is the need to go deeper, go further, not stop swimming until his life is left far behind.

Sometimes he doesn’t hate his ‘gift’.

 

He spends four days in the water, letting the ocean wash away each budding feeling until he is more fatigued from his emotions than the actual act of swimming itself. Yuuko is waiting for him when he surfaces, eyebrows raised and foot tapping against the sand - her sharp expression makes it clear that his note was not enough. She helps him beach himself and towels his hair as he tries to dry his tail enough to shift back.

It’s not painful exactly, but not comfortable either.

Yuuri thinks that Yuuko not telling him is her way of revenge. Because as he walks up to the house a poodle too big to be Vicchan but so very similar tackles him to the ground. Yuuko laughs. The dog barks. And Yuuri’s brain tries to comprehend what is going on.

With a little struggle he manages to get up and open the door enough to see his father caring a tray of tea and small snacks past, “I’m home,” he calls out because what else can he say?

“Oh, Yuuri, you’re back!” His father pauses, “And I see you’ve met one of our new guests. Looks just like Vicchan doesn’t he? A good-looking foreigner brought him, nice fellow.”

His father is still talking, but everything has become static - and the next thing he knows is that Viktor Nikiforov is walking by in nothing but a green robe.

“V-Viktor?!” He exclaims, unable to hide his shock, because this is the same man that asked for a commemorative photo. The same man that Yuuri has been chasing after since he can remember. This is the same man that had choreographed the program Yuuko’s daughters had made into a viral video. “What are you doing here?”

“Yuuri!” The accent is thick, even more so than at the GPF, “Starting today, I’m your coach. I’ll make you win the Grand Prix Final.”

Yuuri’s life changes in that second, the one that comes right after Viktor winks. ( _Winks._ At _him_ ). And all those emotions he had been able to wash away with his four day swim come swelling back up even worse than before. Confusion leads, right before disbelief and then panic so thick it clogs his throat.

He takes a step back, eyes wide and more than ready to run back to the water. Yuuko, his devilish best friend, places a hand on his back and shoves - more than willing to take advantage of his tired state and the way his legs feel sluggish.

He stumbles into his home, jolted from his shock just enough to get out a rough, “What?”

The end of the day comes and Viktor is sleeping on their floor with Makkachin. A sight so surreal that Yuuri doesn’t even bother to pay attention to Minako-sensei has she rushes into the house, rambling about rumors.

“Yuuri!” Minako practically yells into his ear, “Why is Viktor sleeping in one of the inn’s robes?!”

“He soaked in the hot spring, had dinner, and then he fell asleep…” he tells his old teacher plaintively.

Minako rants again, explaining off rumors and things she had read up on and things that Yuuri already knows.

Knows but definitely does not believe.

Because there must be some mistake, this must be some prank. Viktor would never decide to leave skating just to coach a washed out skater from Japan that fumbled his way through a program. It’s simply not possible.

“They’re also saying that when he saw the video of you skating his routine it inspired him to become your coach!”

That’s new, “Huh?”

“He chose you,” she tells him, bulldozing on like she doesn’t notice his disbelief. “You brought him here!”

His heart flips in his chest, unable to keep from hoping even has his rational mind tells him not to. A mistake. It’s all just an elaborate mistake, he tells himself, nothing more.

Viktor wakes with a sneeze, distracting Yuuri from his thoughts with claims of hunger, “As your coach, I’d like to know what your favorite food is, Yuuri.”

 

A pig is what Viktor calls him. Yuuri has heard a hundred and one different insults, pigs often included - he has moved on from letting them affect him. There are much worse things that people can call him, after all.

But hearing Viktor say is makes a knife pierce right through him, gutting him like a fish. It hurts. Hurts in a way that not even losing the GPF so badly had. Not even having Yuri Plisetsky tell him to retire can compare to the sheer embarrassment.

The embarrassment only worsens when the man seems to flirt with him. And Yuuri says seems to because clearly it’s just Viktor’s personality and he shouldn’t take the advances seriously - why would the man want anything to do with him anyway? What right does Yuuri have to think of him in any other way than his coach, than an idol?

But it makes him nervous, makes him scared to be close, and so he flinches. Flails. Runs. Dodges questions and heads to his room because Yuuko will kill him if he tries to go for another swim.

(He’s happy, even if the embarrassment and hurt still linger under the surface, even if the unsure nature of the situation makes him sure it’s all just a dream. He’s happy, because Viktor is here and even if he realizes how hopeless coaching Yuuri is and leaves at least Yuuri had him for a small while. And Yuuri will be damned if he doesn’t use that time to try and convince Viktor to stay).

 

The second time he meets Yuri Plisetsky it’s when he about to tell Viktor that he’s fit enough to skate. Yuri kicks him, harshly, in the back - sending him sprawling onto the floor with new reporters just outside the rink.

“It’s all your fault. Apologize,” the blond tells him, aura threatening and a look in his eyes that spells danger even if he is only fifteen. “He promised me that he’d choreograph a program for me.”

This is how he learns the Yuri is completely underestimating him, entirely self-assured in the fact that he won gold in his division the year before. This also is how he learns that Viktor can’t keep a promise - whether forgetful or just uncaring he can’t really tell.

A competition comes out of it though. One that pits him against the newly dubbed Yurio in order to win Viktor’s favor. He’s nervous despite himself.

He’s nervous that he won’t be enough to keep Viktor here. Yuri has more potential, more confidence, more comfort with Viktor and more history as a fellow Russian skater. There is little reason for Viktor to stay and coach him instead when there is more support for leaving.

But that doesn’t mean he’s about to take losing Viktor sitting down - he spends most of the night at the ice rink, going through figures and getting the feel of the ice once more.

 

Eros. _Eros._ How is he supposed to do _eros_? He has no skill in seducing people, is not appealing in such a way. Why would Viktor think this is a good idea?

But he tries; works hard with Minako and Takeshi and Yuuko. Goes to every practice and listens to every bit of advice handed to him. He is not about to let Yuri take away his only chance to truly skate with Viktor, even if it is just in practice. He’s not about to let himself lose. Not again.

It’s more embarrassing them he lets on to announce that his eros is katsudon of all things. Embarrassing to watch Viktor’s face, embarrassing to see the laughter and disbelief in Yurio’s. So he runs, runs until his lungs ache and then runs some more, runs until his legs take him to the side of the ocean and he all but dives into the water.

All the same he goes to practice the next day.

 

“No,” is the first word out of his mouth when he sees what Viktor wants him to do. The first time he has said it to the man since this competition has started. The first time he has refused to do something for their training.

“What?” Yurio says it first, “Already giving up, pig?”

And as Yuuri stares at the waterfall all he can think is that there are sadly more important things than trying to one up Yurio even if it is to gain Viktor’s favor. There are things that have been pounded into him for years - since he was three. The one thing his parents were truly strict on.

No one must know.

And although that rule has been broken with Yuuko, and with Phichit, that was after years of knowing them. He has barely known these two for a week.

He shakes his head, “I’m not giving up. But I’m not getting in the water.” With that he doesn’t even bother to explain. Because the consequences of saying no are not nearly as dire as those should his secret be revealed. A secret he has not given much thought to since Viktor has arrived - distracted as he has been losing weight, distracted as he has been trying to win Viktor’s favor and attention. So he turns, slips past the two shocked Russians and breaks into a sprint once he is sure he is out of sight even as he hears Viktor call out his name.

Because he hasn’t given much thought to Viktor finding out, but now that he is thinking about it he can’t _stop._ What if Viktor thinks he’s a freak? What if Viktor laughs? What if Viktor refuses to coach him anymore? What if it makes Viktor leave for Russia?

Each question makes his chest tighten. He stops a passing car and asks for a lift back to the onsen. By the time he gets home he is more than ready to hide in his room for the rest of the night. But he doesn’t get more than ten minutes of quiet before there is a knock.

With a sigh he opens the door only to go wide-eyed at the sight of Viktor standing there, frown on his face and arms crossed.

“Yuuri,” the Russian accent comes across thicker when he’s frustrated Yuuri notes. “What was that?”

“I don’t do well in water,” Yuuri says curtly, because there are many things he will let Viktor convince him to do. Skate to eros, go through a competition against Yurio, not eat katsudon. But this is something that Yuuri will stay firm on, even as his comment earns him a surprised look.

“You’re scared of water?” And an assumption makes way for the perfect out, even if it’s not true. Even if it may come back to hurt him later on.

 

He wins. He _wins._ Viktor is staying. Viktor is going to be his coach. His heart can barely keep up with the amount of happiness that is flooding through his veins. Sudden and desperate and so very intoxicating that he can hardly understand.

Viktor is staying. Alone. With Yuuri. Which means…

Which means he’s going to be spending more and more time with Yuuri.

Oh.

He spends the next week hiding, more fearful of Viktor seeing his faults than anything else. (His secret kept well within that list). Just because he won Viktor over in that competition doesn’t mean that Viktor will want to stay once he gets to actually know Yuuri. _Really_ gets to know Yuuri.

A week of avoidance and a heart to heart by the cherry blossom tree brings them closer than Yuuri could have ever imagined.

But that closeness means they are practically inseparable. They eat together, sleep in rooms right next to each other, practice together, go to and from the rink together, and travel together from the preliminary competition. Yuuri barely has time to breathe. And with Viktor thinking he is afraid of water now it means the most Yuuri can do is take a shower - not nearly enough to shift, he needs to be at least half submerged.

And it goes like that, day in and out. Two weeks turn to three and then four and soon a month and a half has passed without a shift and Yuuri’s legs _ache_. Practice becomes difficult around the fifth week, but he refuses to let it show.

It’s the sixth week that has his legs shaking, and with more determination than ever he hits the ice, Yuuko nearby to watch as she does from time to time. It’s a simple jump, he can pull it off without a thought normally. But now is not normally and now his legs are weaker than ever. He hits the ice hard. Harder than most falls but before he even hears his name be called he knows he’s not significantly hurt. Bruised? Most likely. Broken? Not even close.

Viktor reaches him first, “Yuuri?”

The concern hits him first. A gloved hand on his shoulder, another comes - smaller, Yuuko - to rest against his arm.

“Yuuri, are you okay?”

He gives a huff, aiming for frustration rather than pain, “I’m fine.”

“Your take off was perfect, you were tight with you spins and-“

“Yuuri,” Yuuko cuts into Viktor’s ranting. Her eyes are sharp. Sharp in the way that means Yuuri is in trouble and that he will be getting a talking to. He gulps but nods nonetheless.

“I’m fine, Viktor,” he turns to his coach - friend - and offers a smile as he forces his aching legs to move. “I can finish practice.”

“Yuuri, that fall-“

“Wasn’t that bad,” he insists but by the way Viktor’s blue eyes harden he can tell it was the wrong thing to say.

“As your coach I am ordering you off the rink for the rest of the day.” His jaw is set, hands on his hips and skates planted.

“Vikto-“

“No, Yuuri,” Yuuko taps her finger against his arm once. “You need to rest. You’ve been pushing yourself too hard.”

  

He meets her at their little section of beach, face sheepish and trying not to show how hard even walking is starting to become. She sees right through him.

“In the water, _now._ ”

He obeys easily, all too eager to stop the pain and feel the cool lapping of the ocean once more. It’s his fastest shift yet, painful for the first time in what feels like forever.

“Kami, Yuuri, how long has it been?” Yuuko asks from her perch on the sand as he slides himself onto the beach enough to talk.

Thinking back he really should have seen this coming. “A month,” he says tentatively, because he knows that he should be in the water every two weeks, “probably more. But I’ve been busy! I need to train and Viktor-“

“You should tell him.”

“What?!” He feels his heart stop in his chest, not prepared for such a declaration.

“Viktor doesn’t seem like the type to go and tell everyone,” Yuuko continues as if she hasn’t just shattered his world. “Mari-nee-chan agrees, too.”

“You talked to my sister,” he wheezes out.

“And with how much time you two spend together it’s bound to come out at some point,” Yuuko taps her chin as if she is thinking all of this up on the spot. “The longer you wait the more he’ll feel betrayed.”

“But-“

“No ‘but’s,” she tells him with a wave of her hand. “Besides, if you don’t this could happen again.”

“Yu-chan,” he tries, because this isn’t about Viktor telling someone else. “It’s just…” he tries to find the words, the ones that will explain perfectly why he is so reluctant. Because he _has_ considered it. Considered telling Viktor everything and dismissed it for fear of abandonment. He isn’t sure he can say that outload… but… But this is Yuuko. Yuuko who he can tell everything. “Don’t you think this is all a bit too much?”

“Too much?” Yuuko’s gaze goes soft with understanding. “Yuuri, this is the man that didn’t run after you said katsudon was your eros.”

He feels a blush run across his face, heavy and entirely not because of how cold the water is. “Who…”

“Mari, Minako and I have weekly get-togethers,” Yuuko says cheerfully.

 

“I take it you and Yuuko talked.” He jumps at the voice, sputtering as his sister comes out from the shadows she was lurking in. “Is that why you’re loitering out here?”

“I’m not loitering,” he denies it, head shaking and arms flailing. It had only been ten minutes, _really_.

His sister hums, eyes shrewd. “I’ll support whatever you decide,” she places a cigarette between her lips. “Now get inside, fish-boy.”

He glances at her one more time, not in the least offended by her nickname. He shakes his head as he finally slides open the door nerves flaring bright and hot under his skin. What greets him is the sight of his mother and Viktor sitting together, Makkachin to the side seemingly content to just bask in his mother’s attention.

It makes him smile despite his anxiety. Despite the fact he is about to tell someone his deepest secret. Despite the fact that this is _Viktor_. Viktor who smiles and laughs and spends his time with Yuuri despite all his flaws. Viktor who Yuuri has idolized and chased since the first time he saw the man skate. Viktor who stole Yuuri’s heart with his skating and is doing it again with his _everything._

He shuffles out of his shoes, “I’m home.”

“Ah, Yuuri, how’s Yuuko doing?” His mother smiles up at him, not bothering to stop petting the poodle relaxing by her knees.

“She’s doing well,” he gives a shaky smile. He can’t bring himself to look at Viktor, not yet. “Mom, are the hot springs cleared?”

There is shock first, his mom’s eyes wide as they skitter from him to Viktor and back. But understanding fills them all too fast, a smile brighter than Yuuri has seen from her since he came home. “Mari cleared them out a half-hour ago.” Of course his sister did. Yuuko and her have been talking, after all. He nods, perhaps for a few seconds too long because his mother gives him an encouraging look, “I’ll keep Makkachin company while you two talk.”

“Thank you,” he murmurs. “Viktor,” he starts, voice small and questioning, “I- there’s… There’s something I need to tell you.”

Viktor’s ocean blue eyes are filled with more confusion than anything else, but curiosity and trust lay there too. With little fuss his coach - friend, more? - follows as Yuuri tracks his way to the largest hot spring they have.

“Yuuri, aren’t you scared of water?” Viktor asks him as Yuuri pulls his clothes off with shaking hands and butterflies twisting a monsoon in his stomach.

“Not really,” he gives a small smile, wrapping a towel around himself as he opens the door, the cool air thick with warming steam. He pauses, staring down at the water - he’s come this far, he isn’t going to back down. (But that doesn’t mean he can’t take a few moment to catch his breath).

“Yuuri?” Viktor calls out from behind him.

“Just…” he takes the first step in, “don’t freak out, okay?”

The next few steps are easier to take. He closes his eyes as he sinks lower into the water, closes his eyes and feels the shift take place. Knows what Viktor is seeing, and knows that the steam can’t hide it. Knows by the not-so-quiet gasp.

“You’re…” there is shock there, disbelief in his voice, and Yuuri isn’t sure if he wants to open his eyes but if he doesn’t then he will never know. He thinks that’s even harder than rejection.

Viktor’s face in that moment is something he wouldn’t trade for the world. In fact, he would trade the world to never forget it. Amazement, mixed so nicely with wonder and an emotion slithering in blue depths that Yuuri can’t quiet place. There is a smile, even as his mouth hangs open in surprise. His gaze wracking over Yuuri’s figure.

Yuuri moves closer to the edge that Viktor stands by, unsure how to continue from here. So he says nothing, waiting for Viktor to do something, _anything._

“You’re part fish,” finally comes, soft but loud in the silence.

“Only if half of me is submerged in water,” he explains, trying to gauge Viktor’s next move - the man has always surprised him, though, and this time is no different.

“Yuuri, this is incredible!” He has never seen anyone strip so fast, but the next thing he knows the man is sliding in next to him, sea blue gaze shining like the stars. “Can I?” Viktor asks, hands hovering over Yuuri’s tail.

He nods, because he has never really been opposed to people touching his tail, “It might be-“

“Slimmy,” Viktor exclaims, excitement so thick in his tone. “So this is why you didn’t want to go under the waterfall.”

Yuuri’s tail twitches, “I’d only known you for a week.”

Viktor hums still massaging his fingers over blue and grey scales; Yuuri takes that as understanding for his reasoning.

“It’s also why I fell earlier,” he tells him. “My legs hurt if I don’t go in the water for too long.”

This time the hands do pause, and Yuuri looks up from the water to meet Viktor’s piercing gaze, “Why did you…”

“Wait so long?” Yuuri finishes with a half shrug, “We were always together, and I was too tired by the time we separated to do anything but sleep. Before I knew it I had lost track of time.”

“I’m disappointed,” the two words come and shatter the little window of happiness that Yuuri could just about touch.

“I- what?”

“You should know better than to ignore your health!” Viktor berates him, but his hand hasn’t left Yuuri’s tail and from the looks of it Viktor isn’t so much disappointed as angry that Yuuri would abuse his body so harshly. An athlete should do everything to keep healthy, after all, their very livelihood depends on it. And with career lengths so short for figure skaters there is not much else that takes such priority. “How often do you need to…” Viktor makes a gesture with his free hand, encompassing Yuuri’s whole figure.

Yuuri cracks a small smile, “About two weeks.”

“Then we’ll set up a schedule,” Viktor announces. “We can’t have you falling like that again. You could get seriously hurt! Then what? You won’t be able to win the GPF with a broken bone.”

“Hai,” he smiles up at his ranting coach - friend, more? - and lets the pounding in his heart spread happiness throughout his veins. Maybe jumping for the stars is possible after all. Maybe his dreams were never too big for his fins and maybe they didn’t come in quite the way he thought, but they came true. Because Viktor didn’t laugh. Didn’t leave. Didn’t call him a freak.

Viktor accepted Yuuri.

 

And the rest, as they say, is history.


End file.
